Too Young, Too Gentle
by IgnitedTwister
Summary: The events of the 74th Hunger Games from Rue's perspective. Rated T for the Games. R
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or any of the characters/places that were included in the Hunger Games trilogy**

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_**Too Young, Too Gentle.**_

**Chapter 1**

"Rue, time for work!" Hearing her mother's voice call for her, Rue got out of bed and grabbed her work overalls from the top of the small trunk containing her clothes, she changed into them and walked to the room where her mother stood waiting. She looked around for her siblings; of course they had not yet awakened, the sun was only just starting to rise. District 11 was one of the largest districts of Panem; it had to be to fit all the orchards. There was a fence surrounding the district that was feet high and topped with razor wire, guard towers were evenly spaced along the perimeter and there were metal ground plates to stop citizens digging their way out. District 11's main purpose was agriculture, providing food such as fruit and grain to the Capitol, so twelve-year-old Rue had to work from sunrise to sunset as a harvester, climbing to the top of tall trees to collect apples.

"Have we got any food?" Rue looked at her mother with hopeful brown eyes

"No Rue, the tesserae you took has almost run out" her mother replied with a twinge of sadness. When she had turned twelve, Rue had been required to take out tesserae, a small ration of grain and oil received each month for the rest of the year, for herself, her mother, her father and her 5 younger siblings. Rue's name was now in the Reaping 9 times.

"Okay, I'm going now" Rue started to go out of their shack.

"Rue," her mother called her back and Rue stopped to look over her shoulder, "Don't forget the Reaping is tomorrow"

"Okay, bye." Rue replied, and left. Her mother watched as Rue headed down the dirt track to the orchards and she knew she had to wake up the rest of her children for work. The weather was fairly bright and when she got to the orchards Rue picked her bag up from Bran.

"Hey, Rue" Bran called, "We need you to work hard today, we finish at 11 tomorrow because of the Reaping, don't forget to be wary around the Tracker-Jacker hives" he reminded her. Rue nodded and got to work, if she got stung by a Tracker-Jacker it would be painful, luckily medical leaves were always carried by most workers to help with the pain. Rue worked throughout the day picking fruit and emptying them into the carts, ready to be boxed up. Rue loved music, and often she would sing whilst she worked and the mockingjays sang along with her tune from the woods at the edge of the orchard, the mockingjays were Rue's special friends. Rue was always the first to see the flag that signalled the end of the working day so when she saw it she would whistle four notes that the mockingjays echoed for everyone to hear across the plantations. At the end of the day Rue whistled her four note tune and the mockingjays echoed it all around. She clambered down the tree, hopping down when she was near enough to the ground. "Good work today, Rue" Bran said as Rue signed out. She nodded, smiled and ran home.

Rue arrived to find her family sat at the dinner table, she sat down and took her small portion of food. Everyone was silent, tense at the prospect of the Reaping, before her brother spoke up. "Rue, are you nervous?" he asked and Rue heard a sharp intake of breath from her mother.

"What would I be nervous about?" She asked him

"Well there's a possibility you could be sent into the arena"

"That's enough of that dear" their mother stopped him from saying any more.

Rue went to sleep that night, realising with sadness that, if the odds were not in her favour, she could be dead in two weeks' time.

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**Author's Note: ****I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of _Too Young, Too Gentle._ This was the first Fan-fiction I wrote so please don't be too mean in the reviews! ****The title was taken from Catching Fire, when Katniss talks about Rue during the Victory Tour: "Too young, too gentle and I couldn't save her, I'm sorry". I wanted to make a Fanfic about the events of the Hunger Games from Rue's perspective so this will follow the story of the 74th Games with Rue as the main character until the end.**


	2. Chapter 2

**_Too Young, Too Gentle._**

**Chapter 2**

_Rue ran through the trees, her heart pounding in her chest. The boy was chasing her-his bow aimed for her. Rue yelped as she stumbled down the slope and her foot caught in a vine. She recovered quickly, but not quickly enough. The boy had caught up and he was right behind her. She ran, looking around like a startled deer and spotted a tree. She scrambled up it and settled into the high branches. Rue watched as the boy tried to follow her up, the branches were too thin and they snapped underneath his weight. He fell back down and looked up at her. He fired an arrow up and it hit Rue in her chest. She looked down and watched the blood soak through the fabric of her clothes, she carefully took it out and wincing with pain Rue threw it towards the boy. As her vision clouded, her balance was lost and she tumbled from the tree…_

Rue woke up, cold with sweat and looked around. She was home. She was safe. Her mother had left a green dress with lace at the hem on her chair, ready for the Reaping at noon. She had to work first though, so she changed into her work clothes and went downstairs.

"Morning, Rue." Her mother saw fear in her daughter's eyes, "What's the matter?"

"I'm okay, just a nightmare" Rue smiled and went off to work, humming a tune while she walked.

~11:00 in the morning, Reaping Day~

"Thank you, Rue" Bran smiled as Rue handed her bag in. She enjoyed her working days; this could have been her last so she put all her effort into it. Rue arrived home and her mother had got a bath ready for her, she got washed and changed into her dress.

"Rue, you look beautiful." Her mother exclaimed with tears in her eyes as she brushed Rue's hair.

"Thank you" Rue smiled at her reflection in the mirror.

"Are you nervous?"

"Yes, but I…" Rue's voice broke and tears fell down her cheeks.

"It's okay, it's going to be okay" Her mother put her arms around her eldest daughter and held her close. The sirens sounded and Rue pulled away, her mother's hand rested on her daughter's shoulder as they walked to the Town Square

~12 noon, Reaping Day~

Rue left her mother and signed in, the Peacekeeper at the desk took a bit of blood which stung a little, and Rue was ordered to stand with the other twelve year old girls facing the Justice Building. She stood silently with the other girls, palms sweating, and watched as the Capitol seal came up on the screens. A women from the Capitol came onto the stage and tapped the microphone to test it was working, she had hair that was dyed purple the color of berry juice and cut into a sharp bob that stopped at her shoulders. Her dress was made of turquoise satin and the skirt was made of feathers that had eye patterns, probably from some sort of rare bird. "Welcome, welcome to the Reaping for the Hunger Games" she said in her Capitol accent. "Before we select the tributes we have a short video brought to you from the Capitol" She finished and looked towards the screen. The video showed the events of the Dark Days, Rue had learnt about them from her parents, the thirteen districts of Panem rebelled against the Capitol and they lost. As a result District 13 was bombed and became nothing but rubble and the Hunger Games were made, every year one boy and one girl from ages 12-18 were reaped from each district and they had to take part in the Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death in an arena and there could only be one Victor. Victors were given riches for their win. At the end of the video the woman on the stage, their district escort spoke. "And now we will select one young man and women to represent District 11 in the 74th annual Hunger Games. We will start with the men." Rue watched as she walked over to the glass bowl containing the names of the boys eligible for the Games, the woman chose a name and read it out. "Thresh," Rue watched the woman scan over the crowd looking for the boy. Thresh walked up to the stage and Rue saw him for the first time, she didn't know him but she had seen him around the District. Thresh was 17 years old. "Now for the women," Rue watched as the woman took out a name, she read it out and Rue's blood ran cold. "Rue," the woman called to the crowd.

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**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next one will be up in 2-7 days.**


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